I was pleasantly surprised last winter with the news that one more book of my favourite writer, Michael Crichton was being released by Harper Collins after being found as a complete script in his hard disk. It was also said that the novel was written way back in the 90’s but not sent out for publishing. Also news confirming Spielberg’s interests in making a movie out of the book surfaced at that time. As many would know, Spielberg’s last movie dealing with history & sea-journey, Amistad, was a dud despite having some really good visuals. The in-your-face kind of Spielberg effect was obviously absent in the movie and it sunk under the might of Titanic at the Academy awards that year. Hence I was a little apprehensive at first as to how effectively would Steven would pull this one, especially if it involved moral dilemma and all those Amistadic stuff. But after reading the book, I am supremely confident that this would make a really good treatment of Pirately Adventures if Steven finds his way of narration in this movie.
Now, coming to the book itself, it is set in the 17th Century New World. This was the time when Spain was commanding the Western Waters with its magnificent Armada. The story actually starts in the tiny British Colony of Jamaica with its bustling Port Royal. The colony is ruled by the corrupt Governor Sir James Almont who sides with private raiders to plunder Spanish wealth to fill up Britain’s coffers and in the process becoming rich himself. This looks the most reasonable way a lesser power can act in such a hostile territory, bullying a bigger rival. In many ways, the situation looks more like modern day Somalia. People who are considered pirates by the outside world are the ones who command the most respect in the society. Their economy is built and sustained by these so-called ‘privateers’. In this Symbiotic relationship, both of them flourish.
The book begins by chronicling the activities of the Governor in the little outpost of the British Empire, which is maintained for the sole reason that the King can make claims of a string footing in the New World, whereas in reality it is not even a toe-hold! The Governor during his errands comes to know about a Spanish Galleon, which he believes would hold immense treasure, taking shelter in the Spanish strong-hold of Matenceros. He then invites the famed Harvard-educated privateer Charles Hunt for a dinner to discuss over the spoils and shares for bankrolling a raid on Matenceros and capturing the Galleon. The Governor’s new secretary who is present in this meeting proposes strong objections to the Governor’s proposal and is unceremoniously silenced by Hunter. With the Governor’s backing, Hunter plans for the most ambitious privateering raid in a century. He then collects and forms a formidable team of marauders for the raid and leaves for the Galleon.
Hunter and his team in their journey to bring the treasure, meet their greatest enemy, climb a 400 feet rock face, destroy a harbour, out-manoeuvre a clever captain, brave an hurricane, outrun a tribe of cannibals, fight a mythical sea-monster all to find themselves caught in a web of cunning politics back home. The Governor is put under house-arrest and the Secretary and the police captain assume control of the colony. An aide of Hunter joins force with them and betrays him for a larger share of the treasure. Hunter is sentenced to death and sent away to a rotting jail. Hunter escapes with the help of Governor’s mistress and executes a series of Godfather’esque killing which finishes off all his enemies and betrayers. In the end, order is restored in the colony and things get back to the way they were. Hunter though, loses half his treasure as his betraying aide buries it somewhere and Hunter never succeeds deciphering the map.
The book, for whatever reason Crichton chose not to publish, looks more like a work in progress. The main characters are under-developed, though we can never perhaps say that Crichton has ever done full justice to a character in any of his novels. It looks more like someone had come up with a list of what are all the things that can happen to a pirate on a sea-journey and then developed a story around it connecting the dots. This approach which perhaps work out wonderfully well in sci-fi novels, for which Crichton is immensely popular, fails miserably in this book. But if it were written for the creating a rich cinematic experience, then this book would pass off as OK. Who knows, maybe that was the intention of the author. Crichton would have turned up in his grave for this grave mistake his heirs have done. May be the script could’ve been directly sold to Steven for making a movie instead of printing & publishing it and in the process killing all those trees and time of die-hard Crichton fans. One thing that you have to give away to Crichton is his ability to retain the attention of the reader, even for a bad book!
All in all, Pirate Latitudes is a lame novel but a wonderful material for a movie. Hope they don’t mess it up and give us something that looks more like a rehashed version of Pirates of the Carribean with only the faces of the characters morphed! Crichton, I wish your name’s not remembered after this forgettable material! RIP!
P.S: This post is taken from my other blog : http://vijaykpillai.wordpress.com/
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